


baby, you’re my holy ghost.

by lunecarree



Category: The Boyz (Korea Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Halloween Themes, Haunted Houses, M/M, Strangers to Lovers, barnacle boy is mentioned like once, broccoli references, unrealistic portrayal of carnivals, very cute very soft very bad flirting
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-26
Updated: 2020-10-26
Packaged: 2021-03-08 17:21:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,902
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27190336
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lunecarree/pseuds/lunecarree
Summary: Chanhee hates halloween, but thankfully this year, the cute green haired boy is there to make it a bit more bearable.
Relationships: Choi Chanhee | New/Ji Changmin | Q
Comments: 8
Kudos: 92





	baby, you’re my holy ghost.

**Author's Note:**

> this came to me impulsively yesterday and here we are ! 
> 
> ps. fun fact i’ve never stepped foot in a haunted house

Choi Chanhee absolutely despised Halloween. In his ranking of the worst holidays encouraged by consumerism, halloween would definitely find itself in top 3. 

There are an abundance of reasons for this. Primarily, arguably most importantly, is the fact that Chanhee was never allowed to go trick or treating as a child. This was the earliest source of the hatred of the dreadfully so popular holiday. 

The rest of the reasons are just that Chanhee hates everything Halloween stands for. Dressing up had never been something he’d particularly found joy in after the age of 6, when he was old enough to dress himself. The icing on the cake is that there is nothing he dislikes more in this world than Horror movies. He’s never seen a horror movie that wasn’t extremely dumb and completely plotless. 

However, Chanhee’s friends loved Halloween. Juyeon, Hyunjae and Eric probably thought it was the best holiday of the year, irony prevails. For the past 3 years they have relentlessly bullied Chanhee into joining their ‘spooky plans’. They would have pumpkin carving nights, Chanhee was the opposite of artistic and really failed during these nights. 

Eric, ever so sweet, would try and tell him that it wasn’t that bad. 

“That’s actually a really cute cat!” Eric said, playing with the pumpkin. 

“It’s not a cat.” Chanhee pouted. 

“Oh.” Eric grimaced. “Still! Adorable pumpkin!” 

That had not stopped them from dragging him along to more pumpkin carving events, halloween parties, horror nights and every other nightmare one could possibly think of. 

All of them have ended in disaster. Last year’s Halloween horror night had ended in a trip to the emergency room where Chanhee had to get stitches and he had vowed to never watch another horror movie ever again, 

However, this year their University campus had gone all out. They decided to host a whole Halloween carnival. Chanhee thought this was a terrible use of his tuition money and cursed the system when he first saw the poster. 

Realising quickly that this carnival was going to be the biggest hit amongst his friends and that they would delight in nothing more than dragging Chanhee through a haunted house on Halloween, he decided to apply to work at the carnival. 

His application was successful and that’s how Chanhee found himself working at the ticket booth for the haunted house for the fortnight before Halloween.

Looking back on it, this wasn’t his brightest idea. It might have actually been better to spend the night at Juyeon and Eric’s apartment watching terrible 90s slasher flicks and drowning himself in copious amounts of booze. Hospital trip and all. 

His friends had warned him that it would be a bad idea. Hyunjae saying something along the lines of “Yeah, I mean, why would the grinch want to work at a Christmas fair?” Chanhee had taken offense, but now he knew that somewhere in Hyunjae’s comment there was logic. 

The first two nights of the job were dull, a great excuse for Chanhee to catch up on his assignments. Just big groups of freshmen acting brave and cocky while buying their tickets and coming out looking like their souls had left their bodies. 

The third night however, was a little different. 

The set up was the same, just Chanhee in his booth, with a chemistry textbook and one earphone in to silence out the sounds of the pretentious screams of students and overplayed halloween music. 

“Do we really have to do this?” Chanhee hears a man whine while approaching the booth, pulling out his earphones, he looks over to see two guys approaching the haunted house. 

“Yes! Come on consider it a birthday present for me!” The green-haired boy pouts back. The green hair was a bold choice, but he suited it. Chanhee thought he looked like adorable broccoli. Adorable broccoli? 

His friend however, still looking a little sick to his stomach about his fate, appalled exclaims “Your birthday isn’t for 3 weeks!” By the time he’d finished his sentence they’d already made their way to the booth though, and judging from the look of absolute excitement radiating from the green haired boy's face, Chanhee didn’t think he was getting out of this one. 

“Two tickets please!” The green hair boy asked excitedly. His friend rested his head against the wall of the booth and groaned. Chanhee felt obligated to ask,

“Are you sure about your friend there?” Chanhee chuckled awkwardly after asking, and that's when the boy finally turned to look at him. He doesn’t want to sound like he walked straight out of a cringey romance book but Chanhee is pretty sure he’s getting lost in the other boy’s eyes. 

There was an awkward moment of silence for a second, maybe a couple of minutes Chanhee couldn’t be sure. Before the other boy opened his mouth to say “Oh pretty.” Chanhee froze completely on the spot. 

“Oh my god I said that out loud didn’t I? I’m so sorry I have a terrible brain to mouth filter. I always just say things without really thinking they just kind of come out. Not that I lied, you are very pretty, wait is it okay if I call you pretty? It's just, you know, you’re Wow.” The green haired cutie looks like he’s about to explode and honestly Chanhee thinks he might too. 

“Uh thank you?” Chanhee mentally hits himself for making this situation even more awkward, if that was even physically possible. Not looking away from the other’s eyes. 

The guy’s friend cleared his throat and Chanhee finally remembered that he was supposed to be working and awkwardly ripped the tokens from the little book. 

“That’ll be, uh, ten dollars please.” Chanhee tried to save the last shred of his professional dignity by politely smiling at the duo. They brushed hands as they exchanged the cash and the tickets and Chanhee wanted to vanish off of the face of the earth when his friend cleared his throat again. 

He finally felt like he could breathe again, when they finally stepped up to the entrance of the haunted house. 

It only got worse though when his coworker, Kevin, came down to question him about the encounter after he’d admitted them in the house. 

“Oh my god what was that?” Chanhee groans into his arms that rest on his chemistry textbook. 

“Please don’t tell me you heard that.” 

“Every second of it, pretty boy.” he once again groaned into his textbook as Kevin teased. Chanhee couldn’t decide if he wanted to bump into the green haired boy on campus one day or just never see him ever again. 

Chanhee apparently didn’t need to decide because fate had already chosen him, when the next night the cute boy showed up once again in front of his booth this time with a different friend. This one looked a little less like he wanted to be sick at the concept of entering. 

“Is that Kevin?” His friend asks, “I think it is, I’m going to go talk to my friend over there, you can get us tickets, yeah?” The green haired boy nodded at his friend, and then the taller man walked off to go talk to Chanhee’s coworker. 

Chanhee wanted to evaporate into thin air, if he thought last night was awkward nothing could have prepared him for this second meeting. Pushing aside the feelings of awkwardness he tried to make conversation. “Back again so soon?” Chanhee asked, then winced. Maybe it wasn’t such a great idea to bring up last night. 

The other boy's eyes widened, adorable. “You remember me?” He questioned nervously. 

“Of course, you’re kind of hard to forget.” Chanhee gestures to his hair. The boy brings a hand up to tug at a piece of it, and smiles. “It’s very cool, I like it.” The boy blushes at his compliment.

“I suppose the hair is quite stand out ish.” He smiles slightly. “The embarrassing word vomit probably also.” Now, it’s Chanhee’s turn to look surprised, abashed at how the boy would bring it up so casually.

“I guess that too.” Chanhee adds with a nod. “You must really like torturing your friends huh?” he asks in a desperately awkward way to keep the conversation going. Chanhee can only pray that the other boy doesn’t misunderstand his poorly phrased question. 

“Oh! Yeah, a little bit.” The boy jokes. “Younghoon doesn’t seem too scared though.” He adds pensively. Chanhee looks over to the taller boy, Younghoon, who was engaged in conversation with Kevin, and he admits that he doesn’t look the slightest bit phased about what’s to come. 

“Quite the comparison from your friend yesterday though huh?” The other boy laughs at this. 

“Yeah, Jacob hates all things horror and scary.” 

“And yet you dragged him to a haunted house.” Chanhee points out. “Evil.” The boy throws his head back in genuine laughter and Chanhee can’t help the smile that slips onto his face at the sight. He was just so, angelic. 

“Maybe so,” the boy points out. “But it wasn’t that scary, they never really are.” Chanhee shrugs at this, he wouldn’t know. 

The other picks up on this and gasps dramatically. “You haven’t been in?” Chanhee shakes his head. The other looks appalled. “Isn’t it some kind of requirement that you go through it before you man the stand.” The boy winces at the last phrase and now it was Chanhee’s turn to laugh. 

“Nope. It’s not a mandatory requirement to ‘man the stand.’” The boy whines at him, Chanhee just smiles. “I also just don’t think it's that appealing.” Chanhee regrets admitting that after the boy’s face expression changes into one of amusement and mocking. 

“Oh my god, you’re scared aren’t you?” Chanhee tried to deny it violently but his embarrassed flush gave him away. “Ah, adorable.” The embarrassed flush grows stronger. 

“Just two tickets?” Chanhee asks trying to diverge the conversation away from his reasons for not going into the haunted house. 

“Well can I convince you to be the third ticket?” The boy jokes. Chanhee would lie if he said that he wasn’t trying to fight a blush and a grin simultaneously. Damn himself for never being able to be smooth around cute boys. 

“Not a chance in hell.” Chanhee responds quickly and the other boy smiles goodnaturedly. “Plus I’ve got to stay here, you know, man the stand.” the other boy’s smile drops into a fake look of pain. 

“Oh god you’ll never let me live that one down will you?” He asks in fake heartbreak. Chanhee’s heart flutters a little at the implication that there was going to be another time for this to happen again. 

“Oh, never.” They smile at each other as Chanhee hands the ticket to the boy and he hands over the cash, before walking over to his friend who was still animatedly talking to Kevin. 

Once his eyes turn back to in front of the booth Chanhee jumps at the sight of Eric standing smiling there. “Who was that?” Eric asks with a raise of his eyebrows. Chanhee doesn’t answer immediately, still calming himself down from Eric giving him the jumpscare of his life.

“I don’t know.” Chanhee responds which causes Eric to dorn a look of confusion. 

“What do you mean you don’t know him? I just saw you flirting with him for like, ten minutes.” Chanhee flushes in embarrassment at the prospect of his friend eavesdropping on his conversation. “Oh, you don’t know his name do you?” Eric deduces. 

“I know his friends' names are Jacob and Younghoon.” It was kind of shameful actually, how he had never asked for the green haired boy’s name. If he ever saw him again he would have to ask early on in order to stop mentally referring to him as the cute broccoli boy. 

Eric groans, “Younghoon and Jacob are friends with like, half of campus that’s literally no help at all.” 

“Well, it doesn’t matter because you’re not going to snoop.” Chanhee warns with a glare. The younger just smiles in response. He, in true Eric fashion, would probably find the poor boy’s social security number with five minutes of internet access and a weird sense of dedication to his friends. 

“Yeah, whatever, I just wanted to check and see how my favourite Halloween grinch was doing.” Chanhee rolled his eyes. 

“Stop calling me that.” Chanhee whined. Eric blew a kiss as he walked backwards. 

“Never.” 

The third time the green haired boy came, Chanhee didn’t get a chance to ask his name. Nor did he ask on the fourth or fifth time. 

Each time he came along with a new friend, they would exchange casual small talk, knowing smiles and awkward compliments which Chanhee mentally tortured himself over when he got home, and as dramatic and ridiculously poetic as it sounds Chanhee found himself falling deeper into the boy’s eyes and enchanting smile. 

When he was on campus, Chanhee would try to see if he could catch even a glimpse of green hair in the crowds but to no avail. The only reassurance that he had that the boy was actually real and not just something Chanhee had made up, a figment of his imagination to get through his shifts at the haunted house, was that Eric had seen him too. 

A weird burst of luck struck in Chanhee’s favour on the sixth night though, the Saturday, because that night the green haired boy appeared again, later than he normally does. This time alone. Chanhee can’t help feeling a little giddy when he says the dimpled boy walks up to stand without anyone following him. 

“Fancy seeing you here.” Chanhee smiles at the boy when he arrives in front of the ticket booth. Mentally cursing himself, he felt like a pre-teen, heart-racing at the concept of speaking to a boy he still doesn’t even know the name of. Oh god, he has a crush on cute broccoli boy. 

The sudden realisation made Chanhee suddenly very aware of every single move he made. “Well, you know, I do work here.” He laughs awkwardly. He can’t believe it, he has been waiting for a chance to speak to this boy for days and he gets one and just completely messes it up. 

Luckily for Chanhee, the other boy doesn’t let an awkward atmosphere drown them. “I’d say you have my dream job, but you haven’t even stepped foot in the haunted house.” Chanhee flushes and blames it on the accusation.

“I think you’ve been in the haunted house enough time for me and every member of staff at this carnival.” It was the green haired boys turn to flush with embarrassment. Chanhee has lost all control of his face, the smile never leaving even if Chanhee wished it to. 

“Perhaps you’re right.” The boy ponders. “That doesn’t mean I don’t think you shouldn’t come in with me though.” The boy pouts along with his words and Chanhee finds it very hard not to agree. 

“There is no way you could drag me in there.” The boy once again laughs, and Chanhee can’t help but think he’s kind of like the sun, there was a never fading brightness to him. “I’m really not the biggest fan of scary things.” Chanhee says to put it lightly. 

“Damn, not even horror movies?” 

“Especially horror movies.” Chanhee shivers thinking back to his previous encounters of being forced into watching horror movies. That one time when he was 11 and his friends had suggested watching Carrie at a sleepover and he’d peed himself in his sleeping bag and was taunted for it all the way until his final year of high school. Or even last year, when Juyeon had made him watch American Psycho and he had gotten so scared he had smashed a glass and ended up in the emergency room getting pieces of glass removed. 

“How did you end up working at the haunted house then?” The green haired boy looked genuinely confused and Chanhee felt like he was going to burst into flames if he had to explain the real reason why he applied for this job. 

“Well you, see..” Chanhee started, desperately trying to think of an excuse which made him sound less lame. The other boy waited patiently for him to say something. Chanhee groaned. “Oh my god I can’t tell you you’re going to judge me so hard.” The boy’s lip twitched up a little. 

“I pinky promise I won’t.” The boy confidently says, pinky finger in front of Chanhee, eyebrows raised waiting for him to take it. Chanhee can’t believe himself and the situations he gets himself into when he joins his own pinky with the other boy’s. 

“I applied for this job so I could get out of halloween plans with my friends.” It doesn’t feel like a dramatic revelation, but the boy’s eyebrows raise so high that it’s clear that what Chanhee said was the last thing he was expecting. “I love my friends, like, they’re the best I wouldn’t trade them for the world. But, they love Halloween so much and I just can’t stand it.” 

“You hate Halloween?” The boy asks slowly, digesting his words. 

“I feel like hate is a strong word.” Chanhee diverts, it’s the right word. But he can’t find it in himself to explain to the cute boy why he thinks Halloween is the worst holiday humans had ever decided to celebrate. “I just don’t enjoy celebrating it.” Is what he settles with. “Horror movies just aren’t my friends, dressing up in costumes? Unnecessarily expensive and stressful. Trick or treating? Taking food from strangers' houses? I don’t think I could think up anything more dangerous. Halloween parties? I don’t get the need for there to be an excuse to have a party you know booze is a good enough theme!” 

The boy was smiling at him and only after he made eye contact with him again does Chanhee realise he had been ranting. “What about pumpkins?” Chanhee senses a bit of a teasing undertone but lets it pass. 

“I’m ridiculously bad at carving pumpkins.” Chanhee winces at the flashbacks of all his unsuccessful pumpkin carving attempts. “I do like pumpkin pie and pumpkin scented candles though!” He points out that as if it would be his redemption point. 

“I suppose even the prettiest boys have flaws too.” Chanhee freezes in his seat, he tries not to think too much about what that could possibly mean and thinks of something to say quickly to change the subject. 

“I take it you’re a big fan of the whole,” He gestures vaguely to the haunted house, not really sparing it a glance. “Halloween thing.” 

“I mean yeah, it’s alright, I prefer Christmas though.” Chanhee feels his jaw drop physically and can do nothing to help it. He sounded so nonplussed about the whole ordeal. “I like horror movies though I think ghosts are fun.” He continues thoughtfully and then a look of disgust crosses his face. “I can’t stand slasher movies though, I’ve never really been able to handle blood.” 

“It’s alright? Dude you have been coming back to this stupid haunted house every night for a week?” Chanhee exclaims and thanks all the higher powers that no one was around to hear him shout. 

“Yeah, I have.” The boy grinned at him. “It is a pretty terrible haunted house, you’re right.” 

Chanhee scrunches his eyebrows in confusion, trying to come up with one reasonable conclusion as to why he would waste all of his money on a half assed university funded haunted mansion. 

“Oh my god please don’t tell me you really thought I’ve been coming to this haunted house every night for the past week and paying these ridiculous prices to see all my friends get scared at cardboard clown cutouts?” Chanhee frowns, that’s exactly what he thought he was doing. 

“I mean, that was a reasonable conclusion to reach.” Chanhee tries to defend himself but it's short-lived because once again his world is thrown on its axis. 

“You’re an idiot.” The boy’s smile doesn’t fade and Chanhee’s confusion only grows. “I’ve been coming because of you, doofus.” 

“Me?” 

“Yes, you.” He steps closer. “I like talking to you and making you laugh and I constantly try to flirt with you everytime I come but I’m terrible at it and now I’ve spent around fifty dollars this week just to embarrass myself in front of the cutest boy in the city.” Chanhee thinks that he hasn’t been the one constantly embarrassing himself but his body fails him and no words come out. “Heck, I haven’t even asked for your name, that’s how awkward I’ve been.” 

“Chanhee.” He whispers, before clearing his throat and trying louder this time. “My name is Chanhee.” Chanhee is sure his cheeks are impossibly red at this point. 

“That’s a nice name.” 

“Thanks my mum gave it to me.” It takes all of Chanhee’s being to not slap himself in the face for not thinking before speaking. The boy chuckles though. 

“My name’s Changmin by the way. Ji Changmin.” Changmin. 

“That’s a pretty name.” Chanhee’s thoughts are reaching his mouth before they are fully processed in his head. 

“You like that you should hear my phone number.” The boy, Changmin says and then freezes, “Oh my god that was so bad please pretend I didn’t say that.”

“I would.” Chanhee interrupts him. “I would like to hear your phone number.” Chanhee thinks that has to be the least smooth way anyone has ever asked for a phone number, but seeing the way that Changmin smiles at him, makes him think it was perfect.

“Did you get that from a TV show by the way?” Chanhee furrows his brows trying to remember why that phrase was so familiar, as Changmin’s cheeks glow a dark shade of red. 

00:46

Ji Changmin 

hey, its changmin  
u know the dork from the carnival 

00:46am 

Choi Chanhee 

how could i forget :p  
its so great to finally know ur name btw  
for the past week ive just been calling u cute broccoli boy in my head 

oh my god idk why i actually said tht pls pretend i never existed 

00:48

Ji Changmin 

BROCCOLI BOY?????????  
man u rly made me sound like the low budget version of barnacle boy TT

00:51

Choi Chanhee

omg pls i called u cute it was a compliment  
i like ur hair  
p.s barnacle boy????????????

00:53 

Ji Changmin 

it is not compliment shaped but ill accept it bc i think ur cute  
omg pls tell me u know who barnacle boy is  
idk if i can go on a date with someone who’s never seen spongebob

00:54 

Choi Chanhee 

ofc ive seen spongebob im not entirely uncultured  
plus u admitted it im way too cute youd let it slide  
(is this u asking me on a date? :o ) 

00:54

Ji Changmin 

im glad im glad  
curse u and ur blinding smile i probably would  
(idk is it working?) 

00:55

Choi Chanhee 

:p  
(yes i would very much like to go on a date with u)  
(dork) 

00:55

Ji Changmin 

:)  
i cant wait 

00:56 

Choi Chanhee 

:) 

00:56 

Ji Changmin

so i was thinking we could go to a haunted house :p 

00:57

Choi Chanhee 

nvm i take it back.

**Author's Note:**

> [my twitter](https://twitter.com/kunwooism)   
>  [cc](https://curiouscat.me/lunecaree)


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